India reply strongly with the bat
Canberra, December 16
Sachin Tendulkar spared the hosts a century as India's middle-order batsmen warmed up with some useful knocks before the two-day practice match against Cricket Australia Chairman's XI ended in a draw on Friday.

Sachin Tendulkar plays a shot during the match against Cricket Australia Chairman's XI in Canberra on Friday. — AFP

De Villiers puts South Africa ahead
Centurion, December 16
A half-century by AB de Villiers took South Africa into what could prove to be a valuable lead on the second day of the first Test at SuperSport Park here today. South Africa were 257 for five at tea, a lead of 77 after Sri Lanka were bowled out for 180 in the first innings.

A picture shows the draw for the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon on
Friday. England's two surviving representatives in the Champions League, Chelsea and Arsenal, were handed tough ties against Italian opposition in today's draw, while holders Barcelona will come up against Germany's Bayer Leverkusen. — AFP

Vani, Aditi stay on course; Gurbani exits
Chandigarh, December 16
In-form Vani Kapoor and Aditi Ashok played steady golf to stay on course for a clash in the final of the Usha All-India Ladies Amateur match play championships. Both secured identical wins, going 2-up on the final hole in their respective quarter-final matches at the Chandigarh Golf Club on Friday.

Olympics only goal: Man Singh
Patiala, December 16
As 24-year old Man Singh walks out to the shooting range, fellow-shooters wonder how he keeps the smile intact, given that he is a champion skeet shooter who is just one shot away from the world record.

South Asian Games postponed
New Delhi, December 16
The 12th South Asian Games, originally scheduled to be held in Delhi in February next year, have been postponed to 2013. This decision was taken at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), held at the Olympic Bhawan here.

Indian girls script win
New Delhi, December 16
The Indian women scored their first win in the Four-Nation hockey tournament being played in Parana, Argentina, as they beat Ireland 2-1 in their second match.
India led 2-0 at half-time which the goals coming from by forward Anuradha Thokchom (6th min) and defender Jaspreet Kaur (33rd min).

Jeev, Bhullar tied fifth
Chonburi, December 16
Jeev Milkha Singh and Gaganjeet Bhullar gave the Indian contingent a lot to cheer as they moved into top-5 at the midway stage of the inaugural Thailand Golf Championships, here today. Further up the leaderboard, Lee Westwood has turned the tournament into a one-man show with a 64 after his first round 60.

Canberra, December 16
Sachin Tendulkar spared the hosts a century as India's middle-order batsmen warmed up with some useful knocks before the two-day practice match against Cricket Australia Chairman's XI ended in a draw on Friday.

The visitors were 320/6 in reply to hosts' 398/6 declared when rain brought an early halt to the proceedings.

Tendulkar was unbeaten on 92 at tea break but didn't come out to bat on resumption as the Indians tested their entire line-up. VVS Laxman (57 not out), Rahul Dravid (45) and Rohit Sharma (56 not out) were also among the runs. Tendulkar came to the crease at the dismissal of Gautam Gambhir (35) in the 21st over and gathered his runs over the next 39 overs, facing 132 balls and hitting 15 fours in between.

He shared a 132-run fourth wicket stand with an equally elegant Laxman which drove the hosts to despair. Laxman, who took 66 balls for his 50, also retired like Tendulkar after stroking 57 classy runs.

Even if he had come out to bat, the imminent century would not have added to Tendulkar's tally of 99 international centuries or 78 first-class hundreds.

Young spinners, off-spinner Glenn Maxwell and leg-spinner Cameron Boyce hardly made any impression and neither did medium-pacers Jake Haberfield and left-arm pacemen Josh Lalor who all have played less than 10 first-class matches. Boyce, however, did manage to grab a couple of wickets, dismissing Dravid and Virat Kohli. Ajinkya Rahane (3) and Gautam Gambhir (35) were the two other Indian wickets to fall in the dull draw.

Only Peter George, who once claimed Sachin Tendulkar in the Bangalore Test last year, could unsettle the iconic batsman at times. Tendulkar was in sublime touch, literally toying with the bowling as he could adjust strokes at the last minute and repeatedly hit Maxwell through the covers against the off-break.
— PTI

Centurion, December 16
A half-century by AB de Villiers took South Africa into what could prove to be a valuable lead on the second day of the first Test at SuperSport Park here today. South Africa were 257 for five at tea, a lead of 77 after Sri Lanka were bowled out for 180 in the first innings.

On a day when batsmen continued to struggle on a difficult pitch, De Villiers made 56 not out. He shared an unbroken sixth wicket partnership of 84 with Ashwell Prince (38 not out). Star South African batsmnan Jacques Kallis was the most notable
victim of a pitch with uneven bounce.

Shortly before lunch he ducked into a bouncer from Dilhara Fernando, which barely rose above stump height, and took a heavy blow on the left earpiece of his batting helmet. He collapsed next to the pitch but after receiving treatment for seven minutes he carried on batting.

He was on 25 when he was hit, on 27 when he was dropped by wicketkeeper Kaushal Silva off Fernando and was out for 31 shortly after lunch, caught at third slip off Chanaka Welegedera. Silva also dropped Prince, on 26, when the batsman got a thick edge to an attempted cut off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath. Prince earlier survived a chance to Thisara Perera at backward point off the luckless Fernando when he was on 23.

Perera struck two important blows for the tourists in the morning, having Hashim Amla (18) and Jacques Rudolph (44) caught in the slips. But he was struck for three fours in an over by Kallis soon afterwards. Kallis looked South Africa's most accomplished batsman before
his injury.

Rudolph, batting with a splint on his left little finger after suffering a dislocation while fielding on Thursday, battled for 229 minutes and 140 balls for his 44. De Villiers was more watchful than usual but picked up the pace with a flurry of strokes which took him to his half-century off 91 balls.
— AFP

Melbourne, December 16
Four years after his eye-catching performance in this part of the world, Ishant Sharma is ready to have another go at the Australians in the four-match Test series starting on December 26.

"I have been waiting for this tour for a long time," said Sharma, who has 128 wickets in 48 Tests.

Sharma is aware of the expectations as it was here when he first made his mark as an international bowler, dismissing then Australian skipper Ricky Ponting in both innings of the Perth Test.

"There are a lot of expectations from me because I had done a good job on my last tour there. I am charged up now. I have different plans for each and every batsman," he said.

Sharma, 23, stands to either end the summer a wasted, injury-riddled talent or recapture the magic of a watershed 2007-08 tour Down Under where he found fame taming Ponting.

"I went on the tour as a raw bowler and returned a finished product," recalled Sharma.

"People came to know me after that tour, they talked about my bowling and it had to be a positive experience for me. I am really excited to go back there again," the Indian pacer was quoted as saying by the 'Courier Mail'.

Sharma came off the field twice during India's practice game against the Chairman's XI in Canberra on Thursday but the Indian team management quelled concerns over his fitness.

If Sharma finds his bearings on the bouncy Australian pitches, it might spell trouble for the ageing Ponting who has not scored a century for more than 30 Tests now. Sharma has already claimed Ponting six times. — PTI

Ankita Kedlaya in action at the Chandigarh Golf Club on Friday. Tribune photo: S Chandan

Chandigarh, December 16
In-form Vani Kapoor and Aditi Ashok played steady golf to stay on course for a clash in the final of the Usha All-India Ladies Amateur match play championships. Both secured identical wins, going 2-up on the final hole in their respective quarter-final matches at the Chandigarh Golf Club on Friday.

Vani beat Raksha Phadke 2-up and Aditi ended Amandeep Drall’s great run with a similar margin. Vani and Aditi were also teammates in the Indian team for the Usha Queen Sirikit Cup, where India equalled their best-ever finish of fourth place at the Asia-Pacific team event.

But the day’s big story was the upset caused by Millie Saroha, who beat the 2009 champion Gurbani Singh 4&2 in the day’s biggest margin. The elimination of Gurbani means there will be a new All India Ladies amateur champion as none of the semifinalists have won before.

Vani, the current leader on the IGU’s Ladies Order of Merit, was 1-up on the 18th tee with Raksha still in with a chance to send the match into extra holes. But Vani, who has had a great season, with a win in a pro event to go alongside the ones she had on the amateur circuit, won the last hole to close the match 2-up.

Thirteeen-year-old Aditi Ashok, winner of the Malaysian Open juniors this season, was in a similar position against local player, Amandeep Drall, who was the topper in the strokeplay section of the tournament. Aditi, a semi-finalist in the last All India Championships in Bangalore, also closed the match on the 18th.

Man Singh during a training session at the New Moti Bagh Gun Club. A Tribune photograph

Patiala, December 16
As 24-year old Man Singh walks out to the shooting range, fellow-shooters wonder how he keeps the smile intact, given that he is a champion skeet shooter who is just one shot away from the world record.

For the onlookers, being the lone Indian skeet hope in the London Olympics, if he qualifies, should surely take its toll on him.
But Man Singh is just not bothered - that is what his body language suggests.

Hailing from Patiala and presently settled in Delhi, Man Singh shot to fame following the Asian Shotgun Championship in Kuala Lumpur recently where he equalled the Asian skeet record. He is presently attending a camp ahead of the last chance in January to earn a quota place during the Asian Shooting Championship in Doha.

The young man took the shooting world by surprise following his score of 149 out of 150, one short of the world record. “I missed a bird at the first round and was flawless for the next five rounds where I shot a perfect 25,” recalls Man Singh who equalled the qualification Asian record of 124 and the Asian final record in skeet with 149.

“The Asian record is now a thing of the past and my eyes are now focussed on the quota place for the Olympics. I am not bothered about the past record. Instead winning an Olympic medal is my dream,” said the shooter, attending the camp at the New Moti Bagh Gun Club in village Maine here.

“Man Singh joined Abdullah Alrashidi of Kuwait as the three-time world champion and drubbed another Asian record holder Saif bin Futtais of the UAE by five points for the gold,” claims Amarjung Singh, coordinator for the camp.

Man Singh, who entered the scene in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, has improved with time and was at his best in the World Championship in Belgrade, when he shot 121 out of 125. “I think in shooting you improve and learn a lot with experience and that is what I have done,” claims the Mayo College, Ajmer, student.

The shooter is as quick to tell anyone of his keen love for ice-cream and is quick to add that once he wins the Olympic medal, he would surely have his heart’s full of ice-creams.

New Delhi, December 16
The 12th South Asian Games, originally scheduled to be held in Delhi in February next year, have been postponed to 2013. This decision was taken at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), held at the Olympic Bhawan here.

It was felt that it would be difficult to host the event in the Olympic year, with the London Games to be held in August.

Originally, Bhutan was to host the Games. However, at the 41st South Asian Olympic Council held at Dhaka in February, 2010, Bhutan expressed its inability to host them.

The South Asian Games is allotted in turn, to each country of the region. India had hosted the Games twice, in 1987 (Kolkata) and 1995 (Chennai).

The IOA decision would be conveyed to the Sports Ministry and when the Games are held, the IOA would confine itself only to the technical and ceremonial conduct while the Delhi Government or Union Government would be requested to shoulder the responsibility of forming the Organising Committee and take charge of all other aspects of the organisation.

Sports Minister Ajay Maken had observed a while ago that the IOA could not be trusted with Government money for hosting the Games, after the Commonwealth Games scams.

In an acrimonious IOA AGM, the first after the Ranchi session, during the last National Games at Jharkhand in February, it was also decided to take up with the Organising Committee of the London Olympics about India’s sentiments at the involvement of Dow Chemicals, the previous owners of the infamous Union Carbide, responsible for the Bhopal gas tragedy, as sponsors.

The IOA wanted the Sports Ministry to take a stand on the issue, which the IOA will toe as the country’s official view, instead of putting the onus on the Olympic body.

Though the word “boycott” was not used at the AGM, which felt that a high-powered delegation, headed by acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra, should go to London to enlighten the Organising Committee and British Parliamentarians about India’s feelings against Dow Chemicals, Malhotra said in a statement that he had written to the Prime Minister, seeking the Government’s views on this sensitive issue, “so that we (IOA and the Government) can have a uniform stand on it”.

“We will see how things will work out. But in the meanwhile, there has been no let-up in the preparation of the sportspersons who have already qualified for the Games,” Malhotra added.

The AGM also rejected the re-drafted National Sports Development Bill, as it was totally opposed to the clauses on age and tenure limits. (The ministry had claimed that 44 federations had backed the new form of the bill).

The AGM was held to primarily ratify the decisions taken at Ranchi, but the AGM unanimously rejected the change in the IOA constitution, as the State Olympic Committees vehemently opposed the reduction of their votes from two to one. Though the IOA, then headed by Suresh Kalmadi, had made changes in its constitution to be in tune with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) pattern, the AGM rejected the redrafted constitution.

“The entire house objected to it, saying that they did not approve of the new constitution,” informed a highly-placed source. Malhotra has been entrusted with forming a new committee to include new points in the constitution, which should be acceptable to all, without depriving the autonomy of the State bodies.

The meeting also declared “null and void” the commissions/committees formed by Malhotra during the past nine months, such as the Ethics and Arbitration Commissions (mostly composed of retired judges), as they felt that he did not have the authority to constitute such committees without the consent of the House.

New Delhi, December 16
The Indian women scored their first win in the Four-Nation hockey tournament being played in Parana, Argentina, as they beat Ireland 2-1 in their second match.
India led 2-0 at half-time which the goals coming from by forward Anuradha Thokchom (6th min) and defender Jaspreet Kaur (33rd min).

Ireland reduced the margin in the 44th minute through Cliodhna Sargent.

India drew first blood in the sixth minute when midfielder Kirandeep Kaur cut past two Irish defenders to set up Anuradha, who made no mistake in beating goalkeeper Pamela Smith Wick. Jaspreet scored for India two minutes before the breather.

Ireland scored nine minutes after the break.

India mounted attacks and dictated the pace of the game thereafter but were unable to increase their victory margin, as attempts by Poonam Rani and Vandana Katariya went wide. In another match hosts Argentina beat South Africa 2-1 to register their second successive victory.

India will now play South Africa in their last round robin league match tomorrow. India need to win in order to play the final on Sunday.

Chonburi, December 16
Jeev Milkha Singh and Gaganjeet Bhullar gave the Indian contingent a lot to cheer as they moved into top-5 at the midway stage of the inaugural Thailand Golf Championships, here today. Further up the leaderboard, Lee Westwood has turned the tournament into a one-man show with a 64 after his first round 60.

Westwood, 14 ahead at one stage, was 11 clear of Charl Schwartzel (66) at the end of the day. Tied with Masters champion Schwartzel was American Michael Thompson (66). Six of the nine Indians survived the cut. While Jeev and Bhullar shared the fifth place at five-under 139, Jyoti Randhawa, fighting his way back into form, carded a second round 70, which till the 17th was error-free before a bogey on the tough 18th blotted his card.

He was tied 23rd at one-under 143 and his brother-in-law Digvijay Singh (70), starting from the tenth, made two birdies in his last three holes to be tied 43rd at 145. Himmat Rai (69), staring at the prospect of an early exit at six-over, made four birdies in last eight holes to ensure weekend action at two-over 146 in tied 55th and Rahil Gangjee (75), placed comfortably at one-over for the tournament after 17, double bogeyed the 18th to go to three-over 147.
— PTI

BRIEFLY

ICC seeks Interpol help on fixing
New Delhi: The International Cricket Council has sought the help of the Interpol in strengthening its anti- corruption mechanism and prevent organised crime from entering into the game through spot-fixing and illegal betting. Interpol chief Ronald K Noble, who is on a three-day visit to the country and had met ICC President Sharad Pawar and BCCI officials, today said they were looking forward to a "tie-up" with the ICC and BCCI.
— PTI

Royal Club win again
NEW DELHI: Royal Club blanked Columban Youngster 3-0 in a Pool I match of the Delhi Soccer Association B Division League played at the Jasola ground here on Friday. All the goals came in the second half. Striker Rishi Kanta scored a brace while Sandeep made 3-0. Saturday’s fixture: Victory vs New Friends (2.30 p.m.). — TNS

National Sports Festival
Chandigarh: The Punjab government and Department of Sports is organising the National Sports Festival for Women (Group-II) from December 17 to 20 in the sports of hockey, handball and lawn tennis as stated by Jasvirpal Kaur Brar, assistant director sports Punjab. She further stated that the event was being conducted in collaboration with Sports Authority of India under Panchayat Yuva Karida Aur Khel Abhiyan. Hockey and lawn tennis will be organised at Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium, Burlton Park and handball will be held at Government Polytechnic for Women, Ladowali Road,
Jalandhar. — TNS

Churchill look for full points
Margao: Churchill Brothers, on a high after their wins over table toppers Dempo and Chirag United Kerala, are now aiming to move to the top of the standings as they take on Shillong Lajong tomorrow in the 10th round of the I-League, here. Churchill Brothers, who came from behind to beat Chirag United Kerala in their last match, have closed the gap to one point over Dempo who are at the top with 21 points, and a win at the Nehru Stadium will see them at the top of the ladder for the first time.
— PTI

Warne fit for Big Bash
Sydney: Shane Warne today said he was fit to play in tomorrow's Big Bash Twenty20 opening game for the Melbourne Stars after recovering from burning his bowling hand earlier this week. Warne, suffered burns to his right hand while frying bacon at home on Monday, but said he had recovered enough to play against the Sydney Thunder at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The legspinning great, 42, said on Twitter he had been cleared by a hand specialist.
— AFP

Rooney’s tribute to Speed
London: Wayne Rooney has revealed that when he was growing up he idolised tragic football legend Gary Speed. The future Manchester United striker worshipped the Welsh midfielder so much that he even named his pet rabbit Speedo after the Toffees’ star player. “I just thought he was a great player. I met him a few times,” the Sun quoted Rooney as saying. “I used to love the way he played, box to box - late runs into the box. He scored some great goals for us.
— ANI

Becks’ mum ‘hung’ on Cliff
London: Sir Cliff Richard has revealed that his number one fan is
David Beckham’s mother Sandra. The 62-year-old mum of the English football star travels the world seeing him and drags daughter Joanne to all of his TV appearances. She even offered to be his date at his 70th birthday party last year and has given him a signed shirt from her soccer star son for Christmas. When tickets for cinema screenings of the singer’s ‘Soulicious’ tour sold out in 14 minutes, Sandra was one of the first to reserve her seat.
— ANI

Arteta eyes Euro glory
London: Spanish football star Mikel Arteta has targeted the Champions League as the competition to cheer Arsenal's disappointed and trophy-hungry fans. Ahead of today's last-16 draw in Nyon, the Sun quoted Arteta, as saying: "The club has gone through a lot in the last couple of months, the fans have been disappointed and need something to look forward to.” He added: "We won't forget about the Premier League but the Champions League can provide that extra something that gives everyone a lift.”
— ANI

Lampard to quit Chelsea?
London: Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard is likely to follow his team-mate Didier Drogba in quitting the club. Drogba is slated to join Chinese club Dalian Aerbin at over 200,000 pound per week even before his contract expires in summer after being outraged over Chelsea’s refusal to incorporate his demands in a new two- year contract, The Sun reports. Lampard is planning to quit the club after being axed from the last two games against Valencia and Manchester City.
— ANI